Contributed photo / Larry CaseAbout this time every year, most outdoors and guns writers do the same thing – publish a column or article about putting away all your guns and gear. There will be a lot of talk about cleaning weapons and making sure it is done right, cleaning boots and packing away gear we seemed to get out of storage only a few weeks ago. The writers offer a lot of weak (I think) advice about putting it all away until “next hunting season.”
Those of you who are brave enough to read my words regularly should know by now that I don’t usually follow the crowd. Maybe that’s good and maybe not; I don’t know. But one thing is for sure: This ain’t the run-of-the-mill outdoors column.
So while the other guys are telling you to pack up your boots and guns and camouflage gear, I’m saying, “No, it’s not over till it’s over.” Most of my readers have a lot of hunting season left, so let’s talk about some of the game you can still pursue on the trail.
A squirrel dines on a peanut after fresh snow fell in Denver in April 2013.Squirrels. As long as it is not “blue” cold, you can still go after squirrels and have a lot of fun doing it. Many states in the Southeastern United States (plus Pennsylvania) open squirrel season through February. A break in the weather – some sunny, warm days with more hospitable temperatures – brings out the bushytails for some hot squirrel action.
Finding a concentration of tree rats is just like finding any other game (deer, turkeys or bears, for example): Find the food, and you will find the squirrels. It’s the middle of winter, so most of the soft mast (grapes, dogwood berries and the like) is gone, so squirrels are living mostly on acorns, walnuts, and hickory nuts if any are left on the ground. If there is snow, look for squirrel tracks on logs lying on the ground because the little rodents will run every one of these in the area.